Christmas aficionado feeling the spirit in August

Owner Marion MacLeod stands in her Tidings Christmas Shoppe in St. Peter’s on Thursday. (STEVE WADDEN)

ST. PETER’S — No matter how hot or humid the day, it is always a bit like Christmas inside a St. Peter’s gift store.

Two towering nutcrackers help guide customers to Marion MacLeod’s Glad Tidings Christmas Shoppe, where inside the sounds of Christmas music fill the air.

While the holiday season is still four months away, the self-described Christmas fanatic says her love of the holiday stems from a childhood filled with tradition and warm memories.

“My mother was widowed very young with a whole bunch of children, but we always had a marvellous Christmas,” said MacLeod, who is one of seven siblings.

Despite living off a “widow’s allowance,” her mother saved enough money each year to provide at least one small gift, a homemade meal and treats for each child at Christmastime.

“I guess we were (poor) but we didn’t know it because my mother was a wonderful cook and a good baker,” said MacLeod. “We didn’t get what kids get today; we got the necessities, and as long as we believed in Santa Claus, we got one thing.”

Added joy came in finding a Christmas stocking hanging off the chesterfield, she said.

“Our stocking was most important. We got a real apple, a good apple — not a baking apple — and we got an orange and grapes and ribbon candy and barley candy. I mean, that was just such a treat because you didn’t have that all year. My mother bought baking apples for pies, but we never had a Granny Smith, or whatever, but we still always had a wonderful Christmas.”

After graduating from high school, she worked in the retail industry and gained almost 30 years of experience before deciding to open Glad Tidings Christmas Shoppe 22 years ago.

For at least 17 years, she and her husband also invited guests into their home in Richmond County to view her vast display of Christmas decorations, including seven individually decorated trees.

“Every room in our house (was) decorated with Christmas items until two years ago — everything was on my walls, on shelves, any place you could set something. If I took it all down after the holiday season, I had nothing every day to put there.”

MacLeod says working at her husband’s pharmacy also gave her gift supplier contacts, while she also purchases ornaments at an annual retail show in Toronto prior to the store’s May 1 opening.

All of the items in the store are Christmas-themed and include a wide array of ornaments representing various professions — from figure skaters to firemen. There are also candle holders, figurines and many speciality items.

She is quick to point out that while collecting is a material thing, she believes in celebrating the true meaning of Christmas in recognizing the birth of Jesus Christ.

“Everything I see I want. I’m one of those people ‘Dear Santa, I want it all,’” she said. “When you have a love for it, it’s not any different than if you collect teacups or frogs or whatever. It’s what I do.

“I’ve always loved Christmas, always been a fanatic about it. I love every minute of it. I can honestly say in 22 years I’ve not had a day I wished I didn’t have to go to work.”

MacLeod’s shop, located on Grenville Street in St. Peter’s, will remain open until Dec. 31, although not surprisingly it will close on holidays such as Christmas Day.